


Into The Backwoods

by ruff_ethereal



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Drabble, F/F, Fantastic Racism, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Troll!Yatsuhashi, Witch!Velvet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 04:44:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6551530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ruff_ethereal/pseuds/ruff_ethereal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Everything about the land was exactly as it was stated in the contract, except for the witches and the mythical woodland creatures already living there."</p><p>A drabble based on a Fairy Tale/Fantasy Crosshares AU, inspired by conversations with Linaxtic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into The Backwoods

Everything about the land was exactly as it was stated in the contract, except for the witches and the mythical woodland creatures already living there.

Coco sighed. “I should have known there was going to be a catch...” She muttered under her breath.

There were quite a sizable number of them, too. It would have been a simple deal if it were just the one old crone in her hut with the chicken legs, or a single unicorn, but no, there looked to be small coven's worth of enchantresses and their familiars, a small herd of unicorns, and a huge smattering of other extraspecies, the most prominent of them the massive cave troll at back, his eyes squinted so hard they may as well have been closed.

She made a note to return to the agent that had sold her the deed as her bodyguard/valet Fox walked up.

“What are your orders, milady?” He asked. As usual, there was not a hint of emotion to his voice, even as he preemptively readied his wrist-mounted blades.

“Stand down, and let's see if we can talk them into leaving, first,” Coco replied. “I don't want vengeful magic users and angry sentient creatures coming back to bother us, especially if they time it when we've already got clients.”

Fox nodded and put himself into a stock-straight, alert position; not exactly the friendliest of appearances, but they weren't here to get chummy.

Coco carefully strolled up to the crowd with a smile on her face; their own remained neutral, unabashedly bitter, or even barring their fangs (or lack of, for the elderly among them).

“Good day, everyone, my name's Coco Adel.” She lowered her sunglasses. “I do believe you all are the residents of these backwoods?”

One of the witches stepped up—a young one, and making no secrets about her lineage with her tall bunny ears proudly sticking out of her hood. “I'm Velvet Scarlatina. And we are, and we're _not_ moving.”

Coco sighed internally. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

The scowl on her face deepened. “We don't believe in your laws,” Velvet continued, “we don't follow that tyrant you call your queen, _nor_ will we just give up our home because _she_ says so.”

The others behind her readied themselves for a fight. Only the cave troll remained neutral, but you would have to have been blind, deaf, and particularly, suicidally arrogant and/or idiotic not to feel the dangerous aura radiating from him.

Coco opened her satchel. When the animals made that they were about to pounce, she upturned it and dumped all of its contents out: skin care products, some gold and valuables for barter, snacks and supplies for this outdoors trek, and finally, the scroll that contained the deed she'd just bought.

She pulled her bag off her shoulder and tossed it over to them. “No weapons,” she said after many of them fled or hid behind the others. “You're free to check.”

Velvet looked warily at the bag. A squirrel-like creature came over to examine it, rummaging inside the satchel; Coco shuddered at the thought of having to remove so much animal fur from its velvet-lined interior, but it was worth it when it poked its head out, gave the others the all clear, and the tension dropped dramatically.

“What about him?” Velvet asked, pointing at Fox.

“He stays armed—this is a negotiation, not a surrender, isn't it?”

She looked annoyed—rather adorable with the way her nose scrunched up, actually. “Fair enough.”

“Can we all relax now?” Coco asked, casting glances at the animals with their claws out or horns lowered still.

“For now,” Velvet replied.

The locals didn't lose their sour looks, but they all stood down and relaxed, which was something, she supposed.

“Let's get right down to it: based on that scroll over there,” Coco pointed to it, “I have bought exclusive rights to your neck of the woods, fair and square. By no means was it cheap to acquire, and I had to give up some other solid investments; I've put in quite a lot of time and resources into this venture, and am risking even more, so I _expect_ to get something for my trouble—and it better be good.”

“And I'm telling you, that scroll means nothing,” Velvet replied. “We've lived in these woods for generations, even long before you and your people came along and started stealing our lands and slaughtering those who refused to give it up. We've all been forced to live here because there _is_ nowhere else to go, we've lost countless lives and loved ones from the journeys or your people's skirmishes into our settlements, and we've never mounted a counter-offensive once—we've even been helping out the people in the town nearby!

“So long as we are alive, we're _staying.”_

The locals bared their fangs and prepared themselves for battle once more.

Coco sighed. “I am a lady of business, not of war, Ms. Scarlatina; there's no way we can both get what we want, but there has to be at least one way we can compromise.”

Velvet flared up, her ears pulling back flat on her head. “Compromise?! Since when has your kind ever been the _slightest_ bit fair with us?! You mundanes preach about justice, goodness, and fairness all the time, but as soon as they just happen to be a Faunus, or a Troll, or a mystic—well, the only solution is to kill them or run them off, isn't it?!”

The anger drained from her face as her ears flopped at the sides of her head. “Please...” she stepped forward, looking Coco right in her eyes with an expression reminiscent of a starving puppy. “Don't you have a heart…?”

From behind her sunglasses, Coco rolled her eyes. “Oh, please, do you really think that I'd give up such a lucrative opportunity for—” Velvet's hand shot into Coco's mouth. “MMPFF!”

Before she could spit whatever it was that had been force-fed to her, Velvet grabbed her chin and made her chew. Something broke between Coco's teeth with a mighty, loud crunch that almost seemed to echo in her skull.

Fox jumped up at attention and rushed Velvet, blades out, his mouth a hard line.

Coco stumbled back, about to spit it out, when her tastebuds suddenly got a taste of heaven.

Her eyes opened wide in surprise. She started chewing voluntarily, slowly at first before she quickly sped up, desperate to have as much of that warm, crunchy, nutty and spicy goodness as quickly as possible, relishing the sound and sensation of its crunching.

Coco's arm shot out and Fox stopped short of slashing Velvet's throat. The cave troll's hand hovered just above them, ready to whisk Velvet out of range while the other was balled into a fist and ready to pound them both into the ground.

Coco chewed up the rest of whatever that was, swallowed, and let out an inappropriate-sounding moan of pleasure. “Okay, what in the blue blazes was _that_ , and how do I get more of it?” She asked.

Velvet stepped back and pulled out a little satchel, then hidden in the inseam of her cloak. She opened it up and revealed several dozen cookies, quite a bit smaller than most people's palms, its texture a rich, luxurious brown with deep dark cracks all over its surface, and still so warm and fresh you could see the gold-tinted steam rising off it.

“Gingersnaps,” Velvet explained. “My family's secret recipe, whose ingredients can only be found and grown here, and here alone. You bulldoze this forest or drive us out, you lose out on these forever.”

Coco pondered the worth of these baked treats, vs the potential gains if she went ahead with her plan of developing this forest into a slew of country mansions for the rich and anti-social… for about two seconds, before her hand she grabbed a handful of the cookies and stuffed them all into her mouth.

Fox turned his head to them curiously; he was blind, but the smell was far impossible to ignore

Coco let out a noise halfway between a lewd moan and a giggle. “Oh, goodness, Fox, you've _got_ to try this.”

He looked unconvinced.

“They're not poisoned!” Velvet cheerfully added.

Coco grabbed another cookie and held it out to Fox. He shot her a look—an impressive feat—before he reluctantly took it and took a single, small bite.

His colourless eyes spread wide open.

“There's a lifetime supply of these for you, if you let us stay…” Velvet said.

Coco's hand had never shot up faster. “Deal.”

Velvet smiled as she took it, her ears perking up again, her face seemingly glowing in the dimness of the forest.

Coco rather supposed that if anyone else had known about this deal, they would have called her a lunatic, a madwoman, and completely, absolutely daft for giving up such a valuable piece of property for a lifetime supply of gingersnaps.

But then, she supposed they had never tasted gingersnaps made with magical ingredients by a cute Faunus witch.


End file.
